The fierce rivalry between Charles de La Tour, a Protestant, and D’Aulnay Charnasy, a Catholic, for the possession of Acadia, forms one of the most romantic passages in the history of the New World. La Tour received aid in several instances from the Puritan colony of Massachusetts. During one of his voyages for the purpose […]

ANNIE and Rhoda, sisters twain,Woke in the night to the sound of rain, The rush of wind, the ramp and roarOf great waves climbing a rocky shore. Annie rose up in her bed-gown white,And looked out into the storm and night. “Hush, and hearken!” she cried in fear,“Hearest thou nothing, sister dear?” “I hear the […]

MY old Welsh neighbor over the wayCrept slowly out in the sun of spring,Pushed from her ears the locks of gray,And listened to hear the robin sing. Her grandson, playing at marbles, stopped,And, cruel in sport as boys will be,Tossed a stone at the bird, who hoppedFrom bough to bough in the apple-tree. “Nay!” said […]

WITH COPIES OF THE AUTHOR’S WRITINGS. Friend of mine! whose lot was castWith me in the distant past;Where, like shadows flitting fast, Fact and fancy, thought and theme,Word and work, begin to seemLike a half-remembered dream! Touched by change have all things been,Yet I think of thee as whenWe had speech of lip and pen. […]

“The spring comes slowly up this way.”Christabel. ‘T is the noon of the spring-time, yet never a birdIn the wind-shaken elm or the maple is heard;For green meadow-grasses wide levels of snow,And blowing of drifts where the crocus should blow;Where wind-flower and violet, amber and white,On south-sloping brooksides should smile in the light,O’er the cold […]

In my dream, methought I trod,Yesternight, a mountain road;Narrow as Al Sirat’s span,High as eagle’s flight, it ran. Overhead, a roof of cloudWith its weight of thunder bowed;Underneath, to left and right,Blankness and abysmal night. Here and there a wild-flower blushed,Now and then a bird-song gushed;Now and then, through rifts of shade,Stars shone out, and […]

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in, their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”–JAMES I. 27. The Pagan’s myths through marble lips are spoken,And ghosts of old Beliefs still flit and moanRound fane and altar overthrown and broken,O’er tree-grown barrow and […]

“The parted spirit,Knoweth it not our sorrow? Answereth notIts blessing to our tears?” The circle is broken, one seat is forsaken,One bud from the tree of our friendship is shaken;One heart from among us no longer shall thrillWith joy in our gladness, or grief in our ill. Weep! lonely and lowly are slumbering nowThe light […]

Who, looking backward from his manhood’s prime, Sees not the spectre of his misspent time? And, through the shade Of funeral cypress planted thick behind, Hears no reproachful whisper on the wind From his loved dead? Who bears no trace of passion’s evil force? Who shuns thy sting, O terrible Remorse? Who does not cast […]

I ask not now for gold to gild With mocking shine a weary frame; The yearning of the mind is stilled, I ask not now for Fame. A rose-cloud, dimly seen above, Melting in heaven’s blue depths away; Oh, sweet, fond dream of human Love For thee I may not pray. But, bowed in lowliness […]

And the angel that was sent unto me, whose name was Uriel, gave me an answer and said, “Thy heart hath gone too far in this world, and thinkest thou to comprehend the way of the Most High?” Then said I, “Yea, my Lord.” Then said he unto me, “Go thy way, weigh me the […]

In calm and cool and silence, once again I find my old accustomed place among My brethren, where, perchance, no human tongue Shall utter words; where never hymn is sung, Nor deep-toned organ blown, nor censer swung, Nor dim light falling through the pictured pane! There, syllabled by silence, let me hear The still small […]

The same old baffling questions! O my friend, I cannot answer them. In vain I send My soul into the dark, where never burn The lamps of science, nor the natural light Of Reason’s sun and stars! I cannot learn Their great and solemn meanings, nor discern The awful secrets of the eyes which turn […]

At morn I prayed, “I fain would see How Three are One, and One is Three; Read the dark riddle unto me.” I wandered forth, the sun and air I saw bestowed with equal care On good and evil, foul and fair. No partial favor dropped the rain; Alike the righteous and profane Rejoiced above […]

Dead Petra in her hill-tomb sleeps, Her stones of emptiness remain; Around her sculptured mystery sweeps The lonely waste of Edom’s plain. From the doomed dwellers in the cleft The bow of vengeance turns not back; Of all her myriads none are left Along the Wady Mousa’s track. Clear in the hot Arabian day Her […]

“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever! “–PAUL. Above, below, in sky and sod, In leaf and spar, in star and man, Well might the wise Athenian scan The geometric signs of God, The measured order of His plan. And India’s mystics sang aright Of […]

Lieutenant Herndon’s Report of the Exploration of the Amazon has a striking description of the peculiar and melancholy notes of a bird heard by night on the shores of the river. The Indian guides called it “The Cry of a Lost Soul”! Among the numerous translations of this poem is one by the Emperor of […]

“And I sought, whence is Evil: I set before the eye of my spirit the whole creation; whatsoever we see therein,–sea, earth, air, stars, trees, moral creatures,–yea, whatsoever there is we do not see,–angels and spiritual powers. Where is evil, and whence comes it, since God the Good hath created all things? Why made He […]

Andrew Rykman’s dead and gone; You can see his leaning slate In the graveyard, and thereon Read his name and date. “Trust is truer than our fears,” Runs the legend through the moss, “Gain is not in added years, Nor in death is loss.” Still the feet that thither trod, All the friendly eyes are […]

Behind us at our evening meal The gray bird ate his fill, Swung downward by a single claw, And wiped his hooked bill. He shook his wings and crimson tail, And set his head aslant, And, in his sharp, impatient way, Asked, “What does Charlie want?” “Fie, silly bird!” I answered, “tuck Your head beneath […]